Africa Is a Country

Weekend Music Break No.90

Weekend Music Break No.90

By
Boima Tucker

A traditional Parang group from Trinidad

To wrap things up for 2015, next week Africa is a Country will have a few best of lists and long form posts for you to ponder into the New Year (as we take our annual December break). But for now let’s have a briefer interlude with our weekly music break, the last one for this year.

Our selection of tunes this week is honestly a bit of a (holiday work party?) grab bag, but at Africa is a Country we only deal in quality. You won’t be disappointed.

Kicking things off we have Badi and Youssoupha’s ode to the Congo of many names, peoples, and political geographies, so appropriately they just use the telephone country code 243 to signify exactly where and what they mean; To follow up we have the grandmaster of Ndombolo style of the rumba-soukous-decale axis, Kofi Olomide, who proves he can be relevant in the social media age with “Selfie”; Mr. Jayvic brings us uptempo dance vibes from Ghana; and then, Yungsal brings us nice Ghana-inspired downtempo vibes from Sierra Leone; Philadelphia, USA’s Doelife turns up for their squad with “Moment”; and then as promised in a previous music break, we said when the clip arrives we’d once again share Scotland’s Young Fathers’ “Old Rock N Roll”, live from Malawi; Boyzn Bucks members Cassper Nyovest and Riky Rick turn in a dark Cape Town tale with “Le Mpitse”; Afro Lisboa’s Black Sea Não Maya crew releases one of the few videos coming out of that scene, hopefully many more to come; And finally, we take a holiday pan-African turn to the Caribbean with some Trinidadian-Venezuelan Parang-Soca and Puerto Rican Parranda-Salsa vibes. Happy holidays, and see you at the next music break in 2016!

Further Reading

Not exactly at arm’s length

Despite South Africa’s ban on arms exports to Israel and its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Palestine, local arms companies continue to send weapons to Israel’s allies and its major arms suppliers.

Ruto’s Kenya

Since June’s anti-finance bill protests, dozens of people remain unaccounted for—a stark reminder of the Kenyan state’s long history of abductions and assassinations.

Between Harlem and home

African postcolonial cinema serves as a mirror, revealing the limits of escape—whether through migration or personal defiance—and exposing the tensions between dreams and reality.

The real Rwanda

The world is slowly opening its eyes to how Paul Kagame’s regime abuses human rights, suppresses dissent, and exploits neighboring countries.

In the shadow of Mondlane

After a historic election and on the eve of celebrating fifty years of independence, Mozambicans need to ask whether the values, symbols, and institutions created to give shape to “national unity” are still legitimate today.

À sombra de Mondlane

Depois de uma eleição histórica e em vésperas de celebrar os 50 anos de independência, os moçambicanos precisam de perguntar se os valores, símbolos e instituições criados para dar forma à “unidade nacional” ainda são legítimos hoje.